The following background information may present examples of specific aspects of the prior art (e.g., without limitation, approaches, facts, or common wisdom) that, while expected to be helpful to further educate the reader as to additional aspects of the prior art, is not to be construed as limiting the present invention, or any embodiments thereof, to anything stated or implied therein or inferred thereupon.
The manufacture of products often requires cutting material with many different shapes and sizes. Some manufacturers of rulers/templates show users how to tape their rulers/templates together to cut or mark larger continuous shapes that are combinations of their smaller rulers/templates. Those skilled in the art of crafts such as quilting and/or scrapbooking use many tools that include planer surfaces such as various rulers or templates to accurately mark or cut material. A user may slide the lower surface of a ruler or template that incorporated the alignment mechanism over the material. A user may initiate with the alignment mechanism separated from the material and move it towards a selected edge of the material until the perpendicular portion of the alignment mechanism caught the edge of the material. Once in the selected orientation the user may press down on the ruler or template and the alignment mechanism may be pressed up into the cavity or hole. This maintains the planer surface in even contact with the surface of the material and the user may then mark or cut along the edge(s) of the ruler or template without shifting the material.
In view of the foregoing, it is clear that these traditional techniques are not perfect and leave room for more optimal approaches.
Unless otherwise indicated illustrations in the figures are not necessarily drawn to scale.